


The Bookkeeps Life

by Bananly



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Gen, M/M, This is going to have characters coming in and out so i wont overtag it, background chrisholst too, background lorenatz, mages witches vampires werewolves- oh my!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22966354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananly/pseuds/Bananly
Summary: Ashe has been working at Byleth's bookstore for over five years, and has gotten to know most of the people in town in that time. A lot's changed over that time, but he thinks a lot of them have come pretty far as people.Pretty much a slice of life story, not going to be plot heavy.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 12
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter One

Ashe’s walk to work was always an enjoyable part of his day. Being greeted by neighbors, seeing local cats and having (severely one-sided) conversations with them, and stopping by the coffee shop for his bosses favorite tea. Only a block later he found himself at the door to Eisner’s Books and Finerys. The bell softly chimed- not quite bell like to be honest- that signified his arrival.

Byleth looked up from their stack of papers at the sound and nodded a silent greeting. Years ago, his boss’s lack of speaking had made him nervous. Luckily, Ashe had had Byleth’s father, Jeralt, here and he had been kind enough to teach not only the ins and outs of the bookstore, but Byleth’s preferences and comforts as well. When he’d been killed Ashe had felt he lost someone important too, with a photograph of the bookstore’s staff hanging behind the counter as a reminder of those times. These days Byleth was a lot easier to read, just by meeting their gaze he could already tell it was a good thing he picked up tea.

Coming behind the front counter and sliding it towards them, he looked to the stack of papers Byleth had been working on. They appeared to be receipts for orders, and picking one up to read it confirmed so. His boss helpfully supplied that the orders were all pick up ready. 

“They just need to be put together and organized. A lot of special orders from the back.”

Nodding, Ashe seamlessly took over the work. Byleth was quick to take their tea and slink to the back of the store to work on whichever hobby they were currently into. Something... about fishing lures, based on the last time he had walked back to their work space. 

With them now moved to the back Ashe got to work finding the orders to pair with receipts. He recognized a lot of the names on the list, including Dimitri, Mercedes, Linhardt, and Flayn. Hopefully Flayn didn’t come with her older brother… last time Ashe had seen the man he’d accidentally flung a quartz pendulum at his head.

A chime of the bell broke his thoughts, leading him to witness Bernadetta sliding into the bookshelves. He didn’t bother greeting her, knowing that she’d be more ready to talk when she came up to pay for her purchase. So in the meanwhile, he went over the orders again to make sure they were straight.

Huh, that was something he hadn’t noticed before. By Dimitri’s name was a note clarifying only Dedue or Dimitri were to be allowed to pick up the order. Usually Dimitri didn’t seem to care if Ingrid or Sylvain picked things up from him. Glancing at the book Ashe had placed under the receipt, he let out a small hum of acknowledgement. The official guide for 2020’s moon cycle… something each werewolf pack leader would need to prepare for the year. Probably for the best then, though Ashe briefly wondered if Felix got his own copy or not, what with his current four year streak of being a ‘lone wolf’, forgive the pun.

Deciding to distract himself from worrying over his ex, Ashe pulled his phone from his pocket to waste some time as Bernadetta went on her book hunt. Loading up Twitter, the very first tweet to appear was from @Sylvnasty. Opening the tweet’s picture, he stared at Sylvain with Mercedes and Dorothea at what appeared to be the coffee shop down the road. The caption was a string of emojis and a joke about hanging out with two “bewitching” ladies. Ashe eyes turned up to the ceiling and he started counting to ten. With how many followers Sylvain has… making bad jokes referencing the girls are _actual_ witches seemed beyond unwise. 

But once Ashe hit the number ten, he let out a deep exhale and just… let it go. Instead, he scrolled down his feed away from the tweet to see what others were up to. Annette burnt her pancakes this morning and he paused to send words of encouragement, and proceeded to like some pictures of her “new makeup look” that she seemed really proud of. There were some posts from supernatural news twitters that really could be mistaken for shitposts too, but it all seemed fairly irrelevant considering most supernatural news was for big cities like New York.

As Ashe finished reading a twitter thread attempting to yet again summarize why Nohrian fae hate Hoshidan fae, he saw a familiar flash of purple in the corner of his eye. Closing the phone he looked up properly and smiled at Bernadetta.

“Hey Bernadetta, find anything interesting today?”

“Y-yeah! Uhm, actually, if it’s no trouble do you have volume three in this series,” she’d put her selection of books on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest nervously as Ashe picked one up to look at the title, “I couldn’t find it on the shelves… it’s probably there and I’m just dumb though….” 

Tipping his head to the side he eyed the series more closely. It was a series about various plants that wasn’t inherently magic related, but most potion makers found worth having. In fact-

“Actually, I think Mercedes picked up that one, and we only had one. I can make sure Byleth orders a new copy for you though.”

Ringing up her total, he made sure to write a note to Byleth about ordering the book, and maybe restocking the series as a whole. 

Bernadetta watched him write the note before piping up, “You’ll text me when it arrives, right? Or uh, Byleth I guess. But… it’s less terrifying when you do it…”

Giving a sympathetic smile, he nodded in agreement. “I know exactly what you mean, I’ll be sure to text you.”

As she turned to leave, Ashe filled out the order form more properly, adding an apologetic note to let him do the texting. He already had most of the customers phone numbers on his phone at this point because everyone would rather avoid Byleth’s texts.

The bell rang as the first customer of his shift left, but he heard Sylvain’s loud voice greeting her as he made his way in. After chatting with her for a moment, he strided over to Ashe as if on a mission.

“Ashe, my favorite and… second cutest friend!” 

Scrunching his eyebrows together, Ashe could only respond, “I thought I was third?”

“Well, I need a favor so right now you’re second, after Annette of course.”

“Ok, well… what is it you need Sylvain?” Crossing his arms, the silver-haired boy got ready to say no to him.

“I just need to hide out in the bookstore for a few hours. Maybe until closing. C’mon Ashe, I’ll even make it up to you. Maybe I can get you some of the macarons from down the road?”

Looking him up and down, Ashe confirmed his outfit wasn’t some form of offensive, and especially wasn’t any of his gaudy Sylvnasty Youtube merch. So Byleth would probably let him… but just to be safe, he’d let them confirm it.

“I’m fine with it if you don’t bother people Sylvain, but you should go in the back and talk with Byleth first.”

The gingers shoulders slouched forward, making it obvious he’d wanted to avoid this part. He sucked it up anyway as he agreed and made his way around the counter to knock on the backroom door. Despite earlier predictions on what Byleth was getting up to, they were an oddity and it was always better to knock than regret. Especially in a shop full of magic items and magic adjacent objects.

Once Sylvain had slipped into the backroom, Ashe took out a broom to sweep. The fact Dimitri was likely to arrive today for his order made him a bit nervous despite their friendship. It wasn’t the same kind of nervousness as when he’d first started to work here and learned that Dimitri was not only the president of their graduating class but the leader of the local werewolf pack. He’s glad they’re friends now but he still felt the need to recognize the man's position in the world and respect it at least somewhat.

By the time he’d swept most of the entryway, Sylvain was still talking with Byleth. That probably meant he was getting a lecture, more than likely relating to women in some way. Whatever discussion may be happening in the backroom, the front remained peaceful as the noise of town life played through the air, giving Ashe a backdrop as he cleaned.

Just as he was putting the broom away, he heard the door open and a sigh was released into the room. Turning to look at the backroom door, Sylvain looked worn out, as if Byleth’s lecture had taken years instead of minutes. As soon as he spotted Ashe and met his gaze, the ginger pulled out his favorite smile and plastered it on.

“Now that _that’s_ over… have you talked to Ingrid lately?”

Setting the last magazine back in it’s rightful place, Ashe gave a quizzical look. “No, I don’t think I have… just the usual twitter conversations. She’s been pretty busy lately though, hasn’t she?”

“I mean, I guess she has been,” Sylvain moved to steal the second stool behind the counter for himself and leaned his arms on the countertop, “Anyway! She’s been on edge lately. Saying she’s been seeing weird people hanging around town. Which sounds like total bunk, right?”

Tapping his fingers to his chin thoughtfully, the silver haired man tried to think if he’d seen anything off lately.

“I don’t know Sylvain… Ingrid’s not exactly known for unfound paranoia. I don’t think I’ve seen anything odd around town lately personally though… and Byleth hasn’t said anything either.”

“That’s the thing! If neither Byleth or the other werewolves have sensed anything then what’s up?”

Nodding, Ashe came back around the counter to sit down. He picked up one of the books Annette had recommended to him and opened it. 

Sylvain seemed to start talking about something else as he began to read, but Ashe was doing his best to absorb the book. He did pick up something about Mercedes and Dorothea being mad, which probably explained why he was hiding, but he didn’t look up to learn details. The book wasn’t subject matter he cared for, but Annette was insisting that he’d be really good with fortune telling magic.

After awhile Ashe was thankfully saved from his book by the chime of the door. Sylvain seemed to be quicker than him, greeting their guest just as he looked up to see it was Dedue.

“Oh Dedue! It’s good to see you. Are you here for Dimitri’s order?” Already knowing the answer to the question, Ashe moved from his chair to collect the order before it caught Sylvain’s eye. He probably knew about it, but Dimitri has specified not to give it to him so it was probably better to have the human bag it up and hand it off.

“Yes, I am. Sylvain, I hope you’re not causing trouble for Ashe.”

Placing the book with it’s receipt in a paper bag, Ashe missed seeing Sylvain wave the centaur off. 

“No trouble! Just hanging out with our Ashey.” 

As he handed the paper bag over, he nodded in agreement. “He’s really not causing any trouble right now. I take it Dimitri’s busy today?” 

Dedue glanced in the bag to reconfirm the book was correct, “Yes. A problem came up at the nonprofit. He’s busy overseeing it so I thought it best I come get this, least it be completely forgotten in our haste.”

From the corner of his eye, Ashe saw Sylvain’s face severely lacking in any surprise at something coming up. Dimitri did require all his pack members donate some of their time to the project, so he was probably better able to guess what had happened.

“Well I hope everything turns out alright. The book’s already paid for. Oh! Dedue, perhaps you should take this with you too.”

Turning away from Dedue’s curious gaze, Ashe looked to Annette’s small stand at the front counter featuring her latest batch of charms. Seeing the one he wanted, he grabbed it and quickly added the item to the paper bag in the centaur’s hands.

“On the house! It’ll help Dimitri sleep better. I know sometimes he ends up worrying too much, so…” 

Sylvain and Dedue both wore twin looks of surprise. As usual, Sylvain was the first to break the silence by giving the shopkeep a pat on the back and a laugh.

“Maybe Annette is right about your fortune telling potential! Or Dimitri doesn’t keep to himself as well as he thinks he does!”

Before Ashe could reply, Dedue spoke up. “Thank you Ashe. I’m sure he will appreciate your thoughtfulness. I must be getting back, if you’ll excuse me.” 

As Dedue left the store, Sylvain leaned back in his stool at a precarious angle. “I thought you said Annette’s magic assessment didn’t go well?”

Moving back to his own stool, Ashe sighed, “They didn’t! It was just intuition. I have been working here over five years now.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Sylvain glanced to the ceiling, “but Dimitri’s a pretty private guy. Doesn’t let just any cute bookkeeper know his inner thoughts.” Turning his gaze back to Ashe, the wolfman winked.

“Unless you’re sleeping with him?”

**

After Sylvain’s barrage of jokes that left Ashe admittedly red, the store day continued on normally. It wasn’t long until they reached 8pm and he found himself knocking on the backroom door. After a moment, he poked his silver head in and announced they’d be leaving for the day. Byleth glanced up from a strange relic to look out the window, and seeing the time in the sky, nodded. 

Seeing as Byleth lived at the shop, they’d be able to take care of any late night emergencies that may occur. That being the case he left the lights on, only making sure the doors were locked before leaving with Sylvain in tow.

Before Ashe could say goodnight, Sylvain had started walking in the direction of his apartment and giving him a wink.

“I know I brushed off Ingrid’s worries earlier, but she’d skin me alive if I let you walk home alone.”

Sighing, he let himself walk along the road with the ginger. Five more minutes of Sylvain wouldn’t kill him. As they walked they talked about a movie coming out soon featuring one of Ashe’s favorite but more obscure knight stories. 

Just as Ashe was planning to interrupt Sylvain’s tangent about the main actor’s talents in a different movie, he caught something from the corner of his eye. Grabbing onto the tall man’s sleeve he stopped them, pointing to the figure. The large shadow of a person was slowly moving down the street, stopping to peer into windows as if looking for something. The two men looked to each other before Sylvain took the lead as he continued his part of the conversation, though louder than just a moment ago.

“And that part in the movie where he comes out of the water- wasn’t it awesome? C’mon Ashe I know you saw that one.”

Tearing his eyes away from the figure, the shorter man kept looking ahead and walking, glancing at Sylvain occasionally to act engrossed in the conversation. 

“I did see it, but I thought the actual confession came across better… well done camera work can’t really bypass the chemistry the leads in the movie had together.”

Forcing a seemingly relaxed posture, Sylvain threw his hands behind his head and leaned back, “I mean sure. But anyone can do good character interaction if they try. True talent comes from masterful camera work and effects.”

“I’ve seen a lot of movies with bad character interactions Sylv-- uh, I don’t think it’s that simple.” Was it really a good idea to say their names super loud with a creep right there? Hopefully their conversation was scaring them further away. 

Just as he was worrying whether to look or not, Sylvain’s voice jumped back to a normal volume. 

“Looks like our friend scooted off. They’re still around though, I can smell it.”

Nodding, Ashe sighed and felt his body relax, “Thanks for coming with me. I guess we’ll have to tell Ingrid she’s right.”

“Who knows. Maybe they’re just a creep. We don’t have to do anything.”

“They didn’t seem like anyone from town though. Are they human?”

Sylvain’s nose twitched, and after a couple seconds a frustrated look started appearing on his face, “I can’t tell. I guess I’ll tell Ingrid in the morning then, and you can tell Byleth. Hopefully this doesn’t turn into a giant mess.”

A plan sort of now set into place, Ashe could only let out another sigh as they reached his apartment building. Sylvain walked him up to the door before waving him inside and saying he’d just wait out there for his uber. Despite his inclination to worry, he let the werewolf since he’d be more than capable of taking care of himself.

Never so grateful that his apartment was on the third floor, the man still found himself checking his windows before finally getting to sleep that night.


	2. Lunch with Werewolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashe talks to a few different werewolves in a course of a day while also trying to ignore his feelings for Felix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention that each chapters pretty episodic? We'll come back to the end of the first chapter here and there but might not touch the meat of it for awhile. Anyway I love Ashelix and the Ashelix server, so this chapter ended up pretty romo, and I'll add the ship to the tags now.

Things continued on normally after Ashe and Sylvain’s spooky night time scare. In the coming days, only a few things of note took place. Ingrid, after hearing about the night from Sylvain, rapidly texted Ashe to confirm details and ask if he felt safe at his house. After calming her down with assurances and a promise to have Mercedes ward the apartment, Ashe received a text from a different werewolf. Dimitri requested he come visit the nonprofit he owns to see how it’s doing.

Knowing the man well enough, Ashe assumed this wasn’t only a call to see improvements but give an opinion on something as well. Though he wasn’t sure he was the most qualified person on this front, he understood why Dimitri saw potential. The nonprofit largely worked to give housing to the homeless with minimal barriers. Having struggled with homelessness himself, Dimitri probably saw him as someone able to give an ‘insider's perspective’ on his operations.

As fortune would have it, the morning Dimitri chose to send that text is the morning of Ashe’s day off. So he decided to meet with him in the late morning, getting up and dressed in a decent hoodie, jeans, and his long coat to fend off the cold as he headed to the bus stop.

Getting off the bus and walking down the block, he couldn’t help but admire that the building was in a lower income area, despite Dimitri’s well known wealth. It’d have been easy to build it deeper in the well off part of town and let people struggle to find it, but an effort to come to people was actively being made by the nonprofit. Entering the office, there’s a few people milling about, but Ingrid waves him to the back while she juggles a phone call and typing. 

Moving to the back area, he gave the door a polite knock and waited for Dimitri’s voice to come through before entering. The office was comfortable looking, with pictures of him and his wolf pack doing various, seemingly expensive, activities together. A few of the pictures are old enough to have Felix in them, looking disgruntled as ever. He also had a few bookcases full of project related materials of all kinds. It was clear that the nonprofit was a passion of Dimitri’s, that had lit a spark and given him a chance to put his leadership skills to use without wearing at his soul. Settling down in a plush chair as the werewolf moved around the folders on his desk, Ashe asked how he was doing.

Brushing a piece of hair from his good eye, Dimitri leaned forward to engage the conversation, “I’m doing alright. Better than alright, really. I’m certain it’s thanks to the charm you gave Dedue the other day. You have my gratitude, Ashe.”

“I’m glad it proved useful! You work so hard, it’d be a shame if we let you get overwhelmed.” Ashe straightened out his back, catching himself in a moment of pride for being useful.

“I hope you know I’m happy to consider you a friend. I may often be busy between here and the pack, but I cherish what time we do spend together.”

Fingers playing with the fabric of his jeans, Ashe smiled and let out a pleased chuckle, “Maybe I should come by sometime soon with some lunch for us then. But that’s not why you invited me today, right?”

“Right of course. Let’s set aside thoughts of future lunches for now. I wanted to show you the improvements we’ve made, and also get your opinion on our progress. Despite everything, it still feels like there’s more to be done and I was wondering…” 

**

As Ashe stood and stretched after the long and productive conversation with Dimitri, he could feel his legs celebrate the movement. The werewolf across from him also stood, moving around his desk so he could properly walk him out. 

Following behind, Ashe adjusted his coat. “My next day off is Thursday, maybe I can bring over that lunch.”

“Thursday… that should be fine. I’d enjoy that greatly.” Opening the office door, he led them both out, stopping when he suddenly heard his name called.

“Oh, Dedue! I take it you’re done?”

Nodding, the man walked closer, finally stopping to hand Dimitri a file. Turning to Ashe he nodded, “Ashe, it’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too! How’s your garden?” 

“The garden is preparing itself for the spring, but the winter plants are thriving.”

“I’m glad to hear it! When springtime comes around I’d love to help out again if you’d have me.” Glancing over at Dimitri as he flipped through the folder he added, “Something for the business?”

Dedue shook his head, “They’re copies of the official invites for the full moon. I’ve just finished preparations for the estate.” 

Looking up as they spoke, Dimitri gave Ashe an indecipherable look before handing him one of the invites. 

“Ashe, if I may ask another favor of you, could you see to delivering this invite to Felix? He’s much more likely to welcome it from you.”

Taking the invite from him, he cocked his head to the side, “You think so? I suppose I can take it to him. I didn’t know he joined the pack for full moons.”

Reaching up to scratch his cheek, Dimitri let out a small huff of laughter, “Not always. He still doesn’t fully trust the pack… or me… but we chose to always send an invite anyway. All local werewolves get an invite, no pack requirements are necessary.”

“I see. Well, alright I can take this to him. I’ll see you both soon.” Waving to them both, Ashe exited the building and turned further into town on a hunch. For this time of day, he felt it was a reasonable assumption as to where Felix could be. 

Entering the gym a few minutes later, he finds his assumption correct. Felix is at the leg press, earbuds in as he does his reps. Ashe couldn’t stop himself from pausing to admire the way his legs flexed as he moved. If he were a weaker man, he’d imagine being caged in by those legs while he-

Moving his hand to pinch himself, he shook his head to escape that line of thinking. Hoping his face hadn’t turned horribly red, he approached Felix knowing the werewolf had probably already smelled him. As he got closer he watched him turn around and take out an earbud.

“Ashe. What’re you doing here?”

“Hey! I was looking for you and figured this would be a good place to start.”

Felix’s eyes seemed to widen a bit in surprise, “Well you found me.”

As he disengaged with the work out machine, the silver haired man offered him the paper he’d been holding. 

“Dimitri asked me to deliver this. It’s an invitation for the full moon.” 

Disgust started crowding Felix’s features as he took the invite to look closer, “Sending a human with it? What kind of idiot is that boar.”

Now that they were close, Ashe was able to get a better look at the man, seeing the sweat pinning down hair to his forehead in a way that shouldn’t look as appealing as it did. Wincing, he kept looking for a comfortable place to keep his gaze that didn’t cause him to be overcome with feelings he wished he’d set aside. His lips were no good, Ashe could only remember how it felt to kiss him. His cheeks only made memories of how they look red and embarrassed flutter to the surface. Ears had a similar problem, with the way they’d always turn red, though they held less piercings than they used to. Finally, he shifts his gaze to the bridge of Felix’s nose and hopes that he didn’t notice his eyes shifting constantly.

“You must’ve been here awhile,” Ashe spoke up, “If you’d like, we could go get some lunch at the diner down the road.” 

Scrunching up his nose, the werewolf glanced to the machine before nodding. “I guess. Let me clean up first. I’ll meet you there.”

“Alright! Sounds good, I’ll see you there then.”

As Felix moved to clean his work area, Ashe turned and temporarily escaped the emotions that were threatening to overtake him. Exiting the gym, he shoved his hands into his pockets and moved towards the diner.

Though the two have been exes for almost four years now, the attraction to the man never seemed to fully stop. They’d broken up in a year full of mourning, when they were not able to maturely handle the problems life was throwing at them. Felix mourning the father he claimed didn't care for him more than the pack, and the fallout with Dimitri that came about from that. Ashe angry with the world, emotions he’d put away for so long bubbling up as Christophe was released from prison and Catherine tried to come into their lives. Both so absorbed in their own problems they struggled to reach out and help the other heal.

As people, it’s clear they’ve come very far though. While the scars of those days sometimes ached, they no longer bled. Felix no longer reacted with flames of outrage at the pack, and Ashe didn’t refuse to go anywhere Catherine may be.

Sitting down inside the diner, he slipped his coat off and smiled to himself. He had to admit, seeing Felix not over react to the invite was alluring. If this had been four years ago he would’ve made a scene. It brought the question to the back of his mind of second chances, and if Felix still felt the same yearning Ashe did.

When Leonie came over to get him a drink and a menu, he asked for some water before letting himself wander down the good part of memory lane. The days before either of their lives turned askew. To when they’d wander the forest at dusk, never truly lost thanks to Felix’s nose. When Felix would visit the bookstore for mundane reasons, looking for an excuse to spend some extra time with him. The time he’d almost made a fae pact with Byleth because he was so ready to promise Ashe’s safety to them that he’d forgotten. Finally, a month before it all came to an end, sitting in a parking lot and staring at the sky. Hands touching, and then suddenly it seemed like the sky didn’t matter anymore, all that mattered was-

Felix moved into Ashe’s vision as he sat across from him, fresh and clean. Blinking the memories from his vision, he gave him a smile.

“Hey!”

“Hi. Did you order?”

Ashe glanced at Leonie, leaning against a counter bored. 

“Oh no, not yet. I thought it’d be best to wait for you.”

Felix nodded and waved Leonie over, adding a loud hey when she didn’t seem to notice. As she made her way over she cheerfully greeted the werewolf by name.

“Can I offer you our special, Sore Loser Soup, for lunch today Felix?”

“Oh fuck off. That was two years ago.”

Twirling her pen in her hand, she gave a shit eating grin. “Yet you’re still sore about it!”

“Whatever. Ashe, what do you want to eat.”

Lifting his hand to tuck his hair behind his ear, Ashe glanced back to the menu. “I’d like whatever the special soup of the day actually is, please.”

Snorting, she wrote it down and nodded. “Whatever you say pretty boy.”

“Pretty boy?”

“Yeah, cause you are one. Anyone in my home town would be all over you trying to get a date.”

His face flared scarlet, leaving him stumbling over his words incomprehensibly for a moment. She just winked and added, “We all know you’re a little soft for werewolf kind anyway.”

That seemed to be enough for Felix to interrupt the scene, barking out his order and shooing her away. Now that she was gone, Ashe took the opportunity to steer the conversation away from what just happened.

“So why did Leonie call you a sore loser?”

Leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms, the werewolf huffed.

“I joined her pack for a full moon event and lost a bet. Her and her pack are just annoyingly rowdy.” 

“I thought you weren’t in any packs right now?”

An aggravated sigh broke from Felix’s throat, but he didn’t seem too off put as he answered. “I’m not. I just spent the full moon with them.”

“Are all packs willing to let anyone join for full moons? I never thought about it, I guess.”

“It’s… fine. Some care, some don’t. Leonie’s pack and the boar see it as common good to allow anyone to join.” Felix shuffled in his seat, taking a moment to remove his own coat.

“I guess I never really questioned werewolf culture, but you guys always make them sound like parties instead of like… in movies.”

Crossing his arms, Felix watched Ashe take a drink of his water and rolled his eyes. 

“They basically are. Parties surrounded by runes, usually. Keeps everyone from fully transforming.”

A vision hit Ashe as Felix spoke and his eyes widened, “Fully?”

“You.” The man squinted at him, “Better not be imagining some anime garbage. It’s different.”

“Nope! Not what I was imagining at all.” He got caught. But the idea of Felix with wolf ears and a tail was cute. He was tempted to ask Sylvain if he had pictures.

“So… are you going to go to Dimitri’s party then?”

“...” The werewolf glanced over to Leonie as she walked towards them with food, “Probably. It sounds like it’s going to be a bad moon.” 

As she put their food down, the girl nodded along. “From what my parents have said, that sounds about right. Accidents are bound to happen to anyone who doesn’t join an event.” Waving to them, she left their conversation alone after adding her tidbit, going back to the kitchen.

The fact Felix had responded with no hostility about this conversation was amazing, and Ashe couldn’t help but find himself wishing again for what they used to have. This is what they had been missing, good communication. But, the fact they were exes probably assured there was no chance to get back together. After four years… it’d be a surprise if Felix felt the same.

“You don’t normally come into the gym.”

Ashe looked to Felix in surprise before nodding, understanding the implied question.

“Well, it’s not like I’m exactly avoiding Catherine anymore. We’re on ok terms.”

He raised a brow, “You hated her.”

“Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive her. But… she wants to do better, so the least I can do is offer her the chance to.”

Biting into his sandwich, Felix considered what he said. “You’re still an idealistic fool then.”

“I guess I am,” he paused to pull a spoon from his napkin, “She’s really trying though, and Christophe isn’t holding it against her… and well, I really do want to believe in the good of people.”

Both turning fully to their food, they ate in a comfortable silence. Neither felt the need to keep up a continuous conversation, instead enjoying time together and a good meal. It wasn’t until their food was almost gone that Felix spoke up.

“We should… do this more. It’s nice.” 

Humming in agreement, Ashe pulled his phone from his pocket. “I still spend most of my time at the bookshop, but… most of my evenings are free. All you need to do is text me. You still have my number, don’t you?”

Nodding, Felix brought his attention to his own phone. “You’re better than texting Byleth.” Putting his phone face down on the table, he called over Leonie.

“What’s up Felix?”

“We’re ready to pay. Two checks.”

It took her only a few minutes to get things ready for them since the diner was empty. In the meantime Ashe gave an appreciative nod to his food partner for remembering he preferred to pay for his own. While it didn’t bother him as much these days, he still felt bad when others took the check.

“Here you go!” Leonie handed them both a receipt, seeming to give Felix a pointed look as she did. The look morphed into amusement as he handed back the receipt with his card without looking closely at it. 

Ashe took a minute longer, looking over the receipt and adding his tip to it before handing over his own card. As she left with them, Felix placed some cash on the table in his way of tipping, tucked partially under a plate.

They both shuffled on their coats as Leonie rang them up, fully ready to embrace the cold by the time she returned, sighing at Felix.

“You know I handed you a fake receipt, right?”

“What.”

She handed it back to him with his card, his eyes squinting in search of the problem. He found his solution quickly and shot her with a glare and grit his teeth.

“A dumb asshole tax? What the fuck Leonie.”

She shrugged, “I didn’t think you were that stupid to not look. Don’t worry, I only charged the real amount.”

Letting out an annoyed sigh, Felix shoved his card into his pocket and stood up. 

“Come on Ashe, let’s go.”

Collecting his own card from Leonie and making sure he had everything, he stood up and gave Leonie a small wave. 

“Thanks for the food. See you around!”

As they headed out, they both shoved their hands into their pockets to avoid the cold. They moved down the sidewalk back towards the gym, before Felix spoke up, his breath coming out in clouds.

“I meant what I said. About doing this more. Maybe next Friday?”

“Next Friday? We could do something after I get out of work… maybe food again?”

Felix glanced over at him before giving a short nod in agreement. 

The rest of the walk to the gym, Ashe forces himself not to stare. He’s grateful it’s cold outside, otherwise his red face would look out of place. His thoughts caught up in this rekindled friendship and his attraction to the werewolf next to him, he almost didn’t notice when they’d reached the gym. It wasn’t until Felix’s pace slowed and he began to speak. 

“Thanks. For lunch, mostly.” Seeming to be all he needed to say, he turned away to enter the gym.

“Of course! See you soon, Felix!” Pulling his hand from his pocket to wave to his back, he forced himself to point his own feet towards the bus stop. As he moved towards it he realized there was some time until the next bus arrived and until then he’d be stuck with his thoughts and memories of the lunch date and how beautiful Felix was.

At the very least, when tomorrow arrived Ashe would have an afternoon of distractions to keep himself busy from the thoughts that plagued him all day.


	3. Annette's Wonderful World of Fortunes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annette comes to visit Ashe with a goal in mind- testing his magical prowess with fortune telling. Ashe can't find it in himself to say no.

As Ashe scrubbed the front counter of Eisner’s Books and Finery to a clean shine, he ignored his phone. He meant to text Felix last night and didn’t and now wanted to wait until after work to do it, so he can give the conversation his full attention. If he sends it now, it’ll be on his mind the rest of the day, and he will only be able to respond sporadically. 

His thoughts are broken by the doorbell to the bookshop chiming, followed by the call of his name. Looking up, he found the cheery figure of Annette Dominic with her messenger bag over her shoulder. 

“Hey Annette! What’re you looking for today?” 

“I had a new idea, and I wanted to test with you! See, I was thinking about it, and we never got around to testing you with tarot cards. So… I took Mercie’s reading this morning.” She paused to slide behind the counter and seat herself, “If you give her a reading and it’s the same, I think it’ll prove you’re good with fortune magic.”

Leaning against the frontside of the counter, Ashe sighed. “Are you sure? Shouldn’t it be the other way around, with Mercedes doing yours instead, since she’s better at fortune telling?”

Kicking a leg out, Annette sighed. “That’s what Mercie said too. But it’s not like you have a strong sense of magic! I’m probably better to test against.”

All of this sounded like somewhat flimsy logic to Ashe, but he was willing to trust her. Annette had put hundreds more hours into studying magic than him. So he gave her a smile and nodded. 

“I suppose I can give it a try. But doesn’t Mercedes need to be here for me to give her a fortune?” 

“Well duh!” She replied, putting her bag on her lap to rustle through it, “That’s why in the meanwhile I’m going to test you again with my quartz!”

Ashe had a feeling creeping up on him that suggested he wouldn’t be able to work his way out of this suggestion. But he decided to give it one good try anyway. “You do remember what happened last time we did that, right? I hit Seteth square in the forehead!” 

“You’re right… but that was a fluke! In fact, I think it shows you have potential for _something_.”

Seeing the determination in her eyes, he hung his head, “Ok. Where do you want to start?”

Annette pulled out a placemat with scattered stars crossing it and unfolded it, then a quartz pendulum that she placed on top of the it gently. With the mat flat and easy to look at, Ashe noted that it wasn’t just stars decorating it. A large outline of a circle was directly centered, with words facing each direction. To the north was yes, matched by a no to the south. The west and east held runes created with a white sharpie that Ashe recognized as Annette’s own work. Previous experiences with her pendulum brought forth the memory of these runes, reminding him they provoked truth and foresight from the placemat. 

Picking up the quartz, he looked closer at it as he accepted what he was about to do. Despite accidentally throwing it at Seteth’s head last time, there seemed to be no cracks or damage on the quartz or the piece of metal it was fastened to at its base. The metal was engraved with Annette’s signature ruin marking it as hers, and a ruin of foresight. Holding onto the chain, he let it swing back and forth as he looked to his ginger friend.

“So I hold it in the middle of the circle, ask a question, and focus on… nature?”

She nodded and adjusted the mat to be closer to Ashe. “Yup! Nature, or just… whatever calms your mind. The ideal is to be calm and unfocused!”

Putting his elbow on the counter to steady his hand, Ashe hung the pendulum above the center of the circle and bit his lip as he chose his question.

“Will I begin dating again soon?”

Trying his best to trust Annette’s faith in him, he turned his gaze to a far wall and tried to guide his thoughts to Dedue’s garden. One of his favorite projects to help out with. Many of the plants in the garden served a purpose, none going unused or underappreciated by the centaur. Each needed gentle love, but when late spring hit and the garden was filled with vibrant colors…

Annette interrupted his visions of the garden. “Hmmm… looks like a weak yes to me Ashe.” She grabbed his arm and shook it to test his grip on the pendulum before bringing her hand to hold her chin. 

“I can’t tell… it’s too weak to be called a fortune, really.”

Letting his arm down, he gently placed the quartz on the mat and moved his hand to scratch behind his ear.

“It’s not like I really have a lot of magic anyway, so a big pull would’ve been weird, right?”

“I guess... but! Let’s try one more time. This time, ask a question you know the answer to.”

Picking up the pendulum by its string again, he gave his question more consideration this time before moving his hand to the center of the mat.

“Let’s see… is Christophe happily in love?” Again, Ashe looked off to the wall. His thoughts stayed calm but were floating away from him to memories of family dinners, memories where he watched his sister chop up carrots. Trying not to laugh as Christophe used some lettuce leaves from a fake beard as he scolded Ashe jokingly. In his mind's eye, the vegetables caught his attention, colorful and seemingly alive. Ashe could hear laughter but couldn’t place if it was his sister or Annette, deciding he didn’t care as he enjoyed the memory. It wasn’t until he remembered why he was in this memory in the first place that he opened the eyes he never realized he shut.

Annette was peering closely at the pendulum, squinting at it warily before letting herself cheer. “It’s not as weak as it was before, in fact I’d call it a success! Assuming the answer was yes. If the answer was no this would be so awkward.”

Looking at the crystal for himself, he saw it lazily pulling towards yes, seemingly indifferent to the flow of gravity as it leaned. A wave of surprise swept through him, breaking the calm and causing the crystal to give up and fall limp, swaying aimlessly.

Ashe looked to Annette, “I can’t believe that worked. It’s supposed to be more dramatic than that though, right?”

The girl hummed in confirmation as she took the crystal back from him. Looking it over closely, she waved a hand over the quartz, causing it to give a faint glow of orange. 

“Well you haven’t done much magic so that’s to be expected. Plus, you can only do so much else with other peoples runes! Maybe we should make you do a bunch of practice fortunes…”

Waving his hands in front of his face, Ashe laughed nervously. “No, no. I think I’m good. Knowing I can do this is good enough for me!”

Leaning back in her seat (his seat, he sighed to himself), Annette tried to give him what appeared to be a stink eye. “If you have potential I don’t know why you’d want to waste it. Wouldn’t it be exciting to be the town’s fortune teller?”

Perhaps she was too loud, or simply too close to the backroom, because the door opened and Byleth poked their head out. 

“Ashe is invaluable no matter which path he may choose.” Their eyes flickered to Ashe, though their face betrayed little emotion, “Even remaining here is a choice invaluable.”

As quickly as they appeared, the door to the backroom shut and they were gone. Leaving two humans to stare at where they’d been, baffled by the sudden intrusion. Shuffling in her chair, Annette broke the stunned silence first.

“I mean… I guess they’re right. As cryptic as that was. This town would feel almost alien if you weren’t in it. Guess I shouldn’t try to take our favorite bookkeep away from their post then, huh?”

“You both are giving me a lot of credit. Even if I wasn’t around there’s so many colorful characters that it’d be the same. You’ve got Mercedes, Lysithea, Felix, and well… everyone else.” Ashe could already feel his cheeks reddening at the idea of being a necessary piece of this town, even as his heart swelled with the joy of acknowledgement.

Annette must not have liked his answer, because she shook her head and planted a hand firmly on the counter. “You’re such a good friend though! Plus, you’re the one who recommended Byleth start selling my charms and work with Mercie on selling potions. Don’t forget all the times you’ve stopped me from burning my apartment down too.”

Trying to free himself before the ginger found more things to compliment him on, he just nodded along, grabbing onto the first potential topic change presented to him.

“I’m sure it would’ve worked out. You’re a terrific mage Annette, so I’m sure you could’ve whipped up some kind of magic solution to prevent a fire from growing.”

“Well, actually… I did rig up some runes in the kitchen after last time. But they’re basically glorified sprinklers! Except they only hold so much water.”

He tried to envision it, but failed, instead tilting his head in confusion. “How exactly does that work?”

Sighing dramatically, she flung an arm out. “It was so much work to set up! So first I had to get a ladder to reach the ceiling. Then I had to balance a giant tub of water on the ladder. Then I had to focus a bunch of magic into a storage rune for the water.. THEN… I had to shift gears to write a rune on top of the first one to release the water when it detects smoke! It took so much magic, energy, and water. Plus, I spilled the tub at least twice! So by the time I was done I was tired, wet, and my kitchen was covered in towels.”

Glad to see his distraction brought Annette into a story and away from everything else, he did his best to follow along and ask questions, even though he was still unsure exactly how this all made sense. “How do runes work if they overlap?”

A sign of success, Annette’s eyes lit up at the topic of magic theory. “Well, if you spend enough energy, intent can be enough. But also, a different colored sharpie works too. Still took some practice though. Doubling up on runes can be dangerous, so don’t hope to do that anytime soon Ashe.”

Both were so engrossed in this line of conversation that the chime of the door went unheard, causing them both to jump as a patient and familiar voice joined them.

“Oh my, are we teaching Ashe how to make runes already?”

Both turned to find Mercedes standing behind Ashe, smiling and looking over the two of them.

“Hi Mercedes! Welcome to the shop. Annette’s just getting caught up in some storytelling.”

“Mercie! I was telling Ashe about the runes on my kitchen ceiling. You know, the sprinklers.”

Nodding, the brunette sat her purse on the counter and started shuffling through it. Humming to herself, she gave a small ah-hah as she found what she needed and pulled it out. A baby blue silk sack appeared and was carefully unravelled with familiar hands.

“Oh, can you move that Annie? I want to make sure Ashe has enough room. We’re still doing the tarot reading you had planned, right?”

Annette jumped up from her stool, quickly folding up her mat and crystal to shove in her bag. Moving around the counter she ushered Ashe to where he should’ve been sitting all along. Once seated, he looked to the deck Mercedes had placed on the table. The backs of the cards were navy blue but immediately looked to match it’s owner in a familiar way.

“Ashe, you’ve never done a reading before, right?”

Shaking his head, he watched her brighten up and hand him the deck. Taking it, he thumbed over the worn cards and admired them.

“I want you to shuffle the cards while focusing on me and ask the deck about my weaknesses, strengths, and to give me advice, okay?”

“Alright…” Keeping his gaze on the deck, he started to shuffle. He repeated Mercedes' request in his head a few times, before he quietly transferred his thoughts to how supportive Mercedes was. While he was certain she had her faults… none were exactly coming to mind, outside a bit of airheadedness. Would that affect the cards? Would the cards even give good advice? Finally putting the cards down, he looked back up to see the girls watching him.

“Do you think that’s good enough?”

“That’ll do just fine! Now, take three cards and place them in a line.”

Once he’d done so, Mercedes clapped her hands. “You’re not familiar with tarot right? So we can have Annette translate them! Usually you want to translate them yourself so you get it just right… but I think this’ll be okay. Go ahead and flip the first one on the left.”

Ashe lifted the card carefully, turning it over and admiring the art for a moment before being instructed him to flip over the other two in a similar fashion.

With all cards face up, Annette leaned in to read them off.

“For strength, Two of Cups, weakness is Five of Rods and the cards advice.. Is Ace of Pentacles. It’s different from my reading but I think it’s thematically similar.”

Giggling, Mercedes nodded as she examined them. “Why don’t you translate them anyway Annie? Just for fun.”

Tapping her chin Annette thought for a moment. “Well I imagine it means your strength is your relationships with people, but you struggle with competition in your passions. For advice… I think spiritual guidance would help? Looking for your personal success.”

“I see… I think it is certainly different from your reading Annie, but it does have its similarities! Maybe Ashe needs more stamina before we give him all these tests…”

Annettes eyes seemed to be piercing the tarot cards in hopes of them revealing secrets, only giving up when she dramatically groaned and rested her face against her palm. Ashe watched her, unsure how she’d take her test not working perfect considering how excited she’d been for it.

“Ashe… how would you feel if I dragged you out to a proper mage school to test you?”

“I… would rather not. I’m not planning on becoming a mage after all.”

Blowing a raspberry out into the world, she glared at the wall. Mercedes patted her arm with a soft smile on her face.

“You don’t need any more competition in town anyway Annie. Lysithea already gives you plenty of challenges.”

Drawing herself up from her slumped form, Annette let out a sigh, “I suppose you’re right. Ashe will just have to stay as our bookstore pal. Byleth was right earlier.”

“Byleh came out earlier? Oh, I hope we haven’t been disturbing your work too much Ashe.” 

He shook his head, glancing towards the door to the backroom. There hadn’t been many pick ups planned for today, and that tended to be a majority of the stores business. Besides, if a customer had walked in Ashe knew very well Annette would’ve been happy to pause what they were doing. Sometimes he was surprised just how lax Byleth appeared to be about these things, but maybe it just had to do with how much they trusted him.

“It’s been a slow day, not to mention it’s almost closing time. There’s not much to do with how clean the building seems to stay.”

Pleased to hear they weren’t a burden, Mercedes took him at his word before looking at the store's clock for herself. Covering her mouth as she gasped, she looked to her friends. 

“My, it really is getting late. I was going to make dinner for us Annie!”

“Oh shoot… we should go then. Why don’t you come over to Mercie’s house when you’re done here Ashe? We’ll be just about done cooking then!”

Just when he opened his mouth to reply, Annette gave him a fierce pout, causing him to change his answer. “That sounds like a lovely idea. I’ll walk over when I’m done.”

Both women seemed pleased at his answer and hurried to get ready to go. Mercedes took a moment to pull her tarot cards close to her chest and murmur to them before gently putting them in the silk sack and back in her bag. Checking the bag was secure over her shoulder, she gave a wave. 

“We’ll see you soon Ashe.”

Nodding, he waved as they left, getting up once they were gone to check the bookshelves and keep busy, either through finding books that needed to be reordered or finding an interesting read to get him through the next hour.

**

As Ashe approached the house Mercedes rented, he tried to think of the last time he’d visited. It’d been snowing at the time, so around last winter. He remembers Mercedes had come down with a bad cold and Annette and him had decided to make her some meals to last her through it. Luckily, it seemed some other people in town had been happy to help her out, because when they’d been by to drop off an array of food her living room had been surprisingly clean. 

Now, as he knocked on the door, he wondered if the brunette ever felt alone in this house. It wasn’t huge, but a whole house is still a lot on someone’s own. It even had a yard, which seemed well maintained, with an herb garden growing along the side of the house.

Annette’s footsteps approached from beyond the door and he let his shoulders relax, the promise of companionship approaching and welcoming. She was quick to usher him into the house, only giving him enough time at the entrance to slip his shoes off before leading him to the dining area attached to the kitchen. The sound of sizzling soup and aroma of different spices made him realize just how hungry he was. He made an attempt to step into the kitchen’s orchestra, but Mercedes was quick to nudge him away.

“Why don’t you go ahead and take your coat off? You just got here, right from work! Take a minute to relax.”

“I suppose… but I’d be more than happy to help with the cooking. I enjoy it, so it’s hardly work.”

She laughed and said of course, before ushering him away, “Go ahead and put your coat in the closet near the door.” 

He moved back towards the front of the house as he shrugged his coat off, stopping at the first closet he could find. Opening it with his free hand, he was not prepared for the man hanging upside down in a closet free of coats. The man snapped his eyes open and snarled at him, flashing his hand out to grab the door and slam it shut.

“Uh… Mercedes? Annette?” He looked around confused, adrenaline suddenly flooding his system from the scare. 

Annette poked her head out and winced. “Oh. Wrong closet! That’s where Emile likes to stay. Go to the one closer to the front door, with a cute welcome sign on the handle. Sorry.”

Quietly nodding, he forced himself to move to the proper closet and hang up his coat without asking anymore questions. The way Annette had explained it made him think this was normal for the household, and maybe he shouldn’t worry about it. But… a man upside down in a closet is undeniably a weird thing to witness. Finding the closet next to the front door, he hung up his coat and made his way back to the kitchen to peek at the food.

“You’re making a lot, is Emile eating with us?”

Stirring the soup, Mercedes hummed in recognition of the question, otherwise silent as she focused on her task. Once satisfied she turned to Ashe.

“No, he doesn’t like soup. He’ll eat later! Oh, Annie, will you set the table? Everything’s just about done!”

“On it!” Annette, familiar with the kitchen, easily grabbed bowls from a cupboard and looked to her silver haired friend, “Sorry about that by the way. I’ve done the same thing! It’s definitely not what you expected tonight, right?” 

As she spoke she offered him the bowls, an invitation to help set the table. He took her up on it, moving to the table and placing their bowls at one of the ends, careful not to knock over Mercedes' vase of flowers as he reached across. 

Calling from the kitchen, Mercedes voice gently scolded Annette, “It’s rude to talk about someone when they’re in hearing distance Annie.”

The redhead almost dropped the cups she’d picked up as she realized her mistake, yelling in a panic “Sorry Emile!” before shuffling to the dining room to place the cups down.

Ashe helped her with silverware next, and by the time they’d set the last spoon down Mercedes’ called to tell them it was ready. 

It took only a few minutes to get everyone settled with a bowl of soup and some bread that'd been bought from the bakery in town. Mercedes clapped her hands together for a quick blessing of their food before they all hungrily dug in.

“Mercie this is good! The meat in the soup isn’t burnt at all too!”

“It’s really good, you’ve gotten much better at cooking.” Ashe agreed, knowing his friends well enough to know burnt food was a possibility tonight, and proud to see they’d managed to avoid that. 

As they ate, they talked mostly about their days at work, happy to catch up in person and retell stories briefly mentioned on twitter in more vivid detail. Looking to Ashe, Annette swallowed a lump of bread and winked.

“So Ashe, I heard from Lysithea who heard from Leonie that you had a cute lunch with Felix yesterday.”

“Oh, it’s been awhile since you two have hung out!” 

Groaning at the two, he nodded his head to confirm what Annette had said. “Yeah, we had lunch together. I don’t know if it qualifies as cute though…?” 

“Please!” Annette got dangerously close to flinging a spoonful of soup with her dramatic motions, “Leonie said you two were so absorbed in each other that she didn’t even bother to come check on you. Plus, it’s not like Felix goes and eats with anyone who offers.”

“I suppose you’re right, but we were just busy catching up. We did get along for a reason… it’s not like he hates me for breaking up with him or anything. At least, it didn’t seem like that yesterday.”

“Well… I’m glad he’s over that then!” Annette hummed to herself, and gave him the feeling she knew more than she was letting on. “So are you guys going to start hanging out more often?”

“Oh, we actually decided to do dinner after I get out of work next Wednesday. So hopefully.”

Mercedes smiled at him, “That’s great Ashe! It sounds like a fun date.”

“Hmm… do you think it’s a date, Mercie?” Annette turned to her friend, pausing her cup in front of her lips.

“If you enjoy each other's company and do a planned activity, doesn’t that count as a date?” She tore some bread, dipping it in her soup, “I don’t think the term date _has_ to be romantic. Unless Ashe wants it to be!”

His freckled face turned red, sighing as both girls giggled at him. Turning the thought over in his head, he was grateful Mercedes was giving him an out even though he couldn’t stop thinking about Felix in ways that definitely leaned towards romantic.

“Mercedes is right, so I guess it is a date. Though I think Felix wouldn’t react well if you said that to him.” 

Finishing her sip of water, his ginger haired friend nodded in agreement. Then she gave him a mischievous smile, “Maybe that’s because he wants it to be a date!”

“It would be cute if you two got back together… you both were so happy together, and I think you’ve both changed for the better.” 

Surprised, Ashe had to focus on swallowing his soup properly so he didn’t choke. “You’re right, we have. But... I don’t know that that’s a good reason to get back together. We didn’t work for a reason, right? Maybe we still wouldn’t work now.”

The girls looked as if they’d won, Annette leaning forward in her seat. “So do you? Want to get back together, that is. You’ve thought about it!”

Looking down to his soup, he chased after a chunk of meat with his spoon before deciding to answer. 

“I think I want to wait before knowing about that. We’ve only just started talking again after all…”

Coming to his rescue, Mercedes took pity on him. “That’s fair, you should take your time Ashe. Annette why don’t you talk about your current crush?”

With that, came the first accident of the night as Annette slammed her spoon down and caused her bowl of soup to tip over and splash soup everywhere. She babbled about how she didn’t have one as she stood up to get paper towels, everyone else helping her clean up and get more soup. Some of the soup had spilled on her, forcing her to borrow some of Mercedes clothes for the rest of dinner. The conversation calmed down, leading to gossip that didn’t involve the three of them. 

Ashe headed home that night with a stomach full of soup, a heart full of friendship, and didn’t spot any creepy strangers stalking around, so he dubbed it a very good day. His phone sat in his pocket, a single text gone unnoticed.


	4. Hilda Wants to Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hilda invites Ashe to the Golden Deer's game night, Rhea comes into the shop, and Felix can actually text! Wowie Zowie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my least favorite chapter writing wise, but plot-wise...? :9
> 
> We can't win them all, please enjoy!!

Hands shooting out from under his bedsheet, Ashe grabbed his phone and turned off his blaring alarm, signalling the start to another day. Pulling the now silent device under warm covers, he let his eyes adjust to the brightness, bleariness already starting to ebb away. His notifications were largely unimportant, morning news letters and ads in his email, twitter notifications, an instagram post, but one caught his eye. A text message from Hilda.

Waiting for his phone to load the message app, he stared at the black screen and thought about his previous plans to text Felix. Deciding firmly he would not leave this bed until he’d messaged the werewolf, he removed any lingering excuses. Plan in place, he read the finally loaded message.

 **Hilda** : Golden deers are meeting up for a game night Saturday youll come right

Remembering all the people he’d seen this week, ending it all at a Golden Deer party wasn’t Ashe’s first choice. He knew though, thanks to growing up with Hilda, that this invitation was not optional. He was probably going to be asked to bring enough party supplies for the both of them too.

 **Ashe** : OK. at claudes house?

Seeing that the fairies text dated back to last night, he assumed she wouldn’t be too quick to respond. Taking that chance, he switched to a chat window for Felix.

Hovering his finger over the text box, he debated to himself the best thing to say. Rolling over under his warm blankets, he squinted at the first rays of sun striking the curtains. Was the werewolf already up and about, or just starting his day, or maybe just laying in bed like Ashe was. Would his text be one of the first things he saw today, or would he avoid his phone until later, after he’d gotten his day moving. 

If he kept wondering about Felix’s schedule and habits, he’d never send this stupid text. So taking a page from Hilda’s book, he stopped thinking and just did it.

 **Ashe** : Good morning! Hope the day goes well.

Staring at the sent message, his brain suddenly jolted awake at the realization of what he’d sent. That sounded so stilted and awkward, _hope the day goes well_. The reasonable side of him said Felix wouldn’t care, but the part of him that was a love struck fool screamed in agony at anything less than perfection.

Turning his phone’s screen dark, Ashe put his phone back on the side table and forced himself to get up, putting physical distance between him and the text. He could check back after he’d gotten ready for work. 

It wasn’t until the sun was fully up and he’d showered and cooked that he dared pick up the phone again. To his surprise, Hilda was already awake and had texted him back.

 **Hilda** : Nope. Its lorenzs house lol  
pls bring chips n salsa  
also that one white wine u know which one  
xoxo!!

Well, Lorenz meant he’d have to ask Hilda for a ride. It, ideally, wouldn’t be too bad though, despite Ashe only recently befriending the vampire in a way that felt genuine, he’d come a long way. The two never hated each other, but Lorenz had felt a personal responsibility to the well-being of humans that was largely misguided. The local community college’s dean had a firm idea of vampire-human dynamics, and it had not helped Lorenz see humans as anything more than sinful temptation for a long time. It’d only been by the collective efforts of the Golden Deer (the name Claude had picked for their study group) and Edelgard that they’d been able to convince Lorenz to look at humans as companions and friends.

The Golden Deer had stuck together after college, remaining the only group of its kind in town. A decent array of supernaturals and humans congregating at parties and having deep personal relations was definitely not how the town as a whole worked. Claude had once joked that “it was better than hanging out with straight people.” a joke response, that only seemed to scratch the surface of their bonds.

Even if being part of this group meant sometimes he had to listen to Leonie and Lorenz bicker over how much money was reasonable to spend on a microwave. They were a good group. As good as a gathering consisting of a faun, a fairy, two werewolves, a vampire, and four various varieties of ‘human’ can be. 

Giving the final ok to his fate, he told Hilda he’d bring the food if she picked him up from work. As he ate, he got a thumbs up emoji from her.

From there his morning carried on as usual, getting coffee for his boss on his way to work and taking over the shop front. Settling into his seat and looking over the pick up list to see what was planned, he noticed Hubert’s books had finally come in. Unfortunately, so had Rhea’s. Hopefully they weren’t going to arrive at the same time. There were also some names on the list Ashe didn’t recognize, which usually meant they’d arrive after closing to get their things. 

Glancing at his phone, he noted his text to Felix was now marked as read, but no sign of a reply. No big deal, he was probably busy this time of day. Before his brain could argue against that, he bell rang to announce a customer. Putting his phone away, he saw the dean of the local community college herself, Rhea Zanado.

The vampire glanced around the store, seemingly disappointed that Ashe was the only one there. Even when he’d first started working here, the dean had seemed to only want to talk to Jeralt or Byleth instead of him. Knowing her personal philosophy on humans, he tried not to take it personal, instead putting on his customer service smile.

“Are you here for your pick up?”

“I am. Is Byleth not around right now?”

Ashe tilted his head to look to the back room, “They’re in the back. Do you want me to ring you up first?”

She waved him off, giving a smile as she moved to the back door and opening it without pause, “I’ll just discuss it with them. Thank you.”

Letting her carry on her way, he got her order out on the counter for when she left. Looking to keep busy, he decided to sweep and just cross his fingers Hubert was coming in later. Though he didn’t think the man was dumb enough to start a fight in the shop, Ashe wasn’t keen on the high tensions he’d have to bear through. 

During Ashe's graduating year at Garreg Mach Community College, Edelgard had risen up in power and challenged Rhea's philosophies and ability to lead. That year was stressful enough, a tentative peace only brought about when they'd all graduated and Edelgard moved to take the rest of the town under her wing, leaving Rhea with the vampires on or near the community college's campus. Even now, Edelgard's right hand man Hubert felt it necessary to take any slights against her personally. Something that Rhea was prone to do, since they didn't see eye to eye on anyway.

Ashe, on more than one occasion, had listened to Lorenz complaining about Edelgard’s lack of trust but the expectancy of loyalty, yet the man had always circled back to her being the better of his two options. She was more accepting of his current choice in partner, while Rhea would never accept a human partner for a vampire.

As he finished his sweeping, Rhea stepped out of the backroom, and seeing her books on the counter swept them into her arms before turning to the only human in the room with a neutral face.

“Byleth said I was free to grab my books, so I’ll be on my way.” 

Nodding, Ashe stepped aside so she could make her way out and smiled, “Everything should be there Ms.Zanado, have a good day.”

Without as much as a glance at her books to confirm this, she thanked him and ducked out of the building. 

Luckily for Ashe, it wasn’t until over an hour later that Hubert came in, only marginally better with his manners. He just thanked his stars for avoiding vampire politics for another day.

Bernadetta stopped by again also, apparently having a good day. She talked to Ashe for a bit, breaking up the monotony of the rest of his shift and leaving him in good spirits as he bid Byleth farewell for the night. Stopping at the store on the way home for party supplies, it wasn’t until he was walking home he felt his pocket buzz.

Shuffling his bags into one hand, he grabbed his phone and found himself smiling.

 **Felix** : Today went fine. Thanks.

Paused on the sidewalk, he stared at the message happily. Felix had taken his weird text in stride, and had a good day. What could be better than that?

 **Ashe** : glad to hear it! you deserve it

Really, all his friends deserved good things, even if it was just a decent day. However, part of his brain wondered if he wanted Felix to have a good day more than he might want it for anyone else. The thought swam around his head as he carried his things home with him, even as he tried to distract himself by putting things away for tomorrow. Then Felix texted him back, and his attention was brought to it all over again.

 **Felix** : Right. You too. 

The werewolf was never the fastest texter, which would drive Hilda crazy, but Ashe found he didn’t mind so much. Part of him hoped longer waits meant Felix thought out exactly what he wanted to say, thinking over his words. It didn’t stop him from being blunt or make him an excellent conversationalist, but the idea made Ashe warm. 

Before he could think anymore about it, he distracted himself by pulling a book down from his small shelf and curled in on his couch to enjoy it. As much as thinking of Felix made him feel warm, and how tempting curling his guts around the feelings of anxiety was, he’d learnt long ago that no one was really worth so many thoughts, and definitely not worth an evening of peace in a hectic week. So instead he dived into his book, reading until the sun had said goodnight and the need for sleep weighed his eyes down. 

The next day remained peaceful almost until closing. Ashe got up in the morning, got to work on time with coffee and the party supplies, the customers came and went, and Byleth even ordered in some lunch for them both. 

With an hour left until closing, the peace disappeared as the bookshop’s bell dinged, one Hilda Goneril stepping inside. 

“There he is! My _favorite_ baby brother!” The fairy came up to the counter, placing her purse down with a thunk that revealed its weight, and leaned onto her arms.

“Hey Hilda, you’re here with an hour to spare.”

“Yeah, well, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you! So I figured I’d say hi before everyone else gets a chance.”

He hummed as he thought back to the last time he’d seen Hilda. Two weeks ago, Holst had thrown a family get-together for all of them because he’d wanted to show off his newly acquired skill of filleting fish and cooking them to perfection. He’d succeeded, as he always did, but the moment was ruined when his younger sister covered her fish in mayo, something “one of her friends showed her”. A family moment to remember, he was sure. One his sister would not live down for years to come.

“You didn’t bring more of Holst’s cooking with you, did you?” 

She sniffed and rolled her eyes, her smile betraying her. “As if, Wouldn’t you rather hang out with a pretty girl anyway?”

Moving to rearrange the charm display as he talked, Ashe’s smile matched her own. “That doesn’t quite beat a good fish when it’s your sister, but I think it’ll be fine this time.”

He let a snort rip through him as Hilda whacked his shoulder in defiance, giving him a glare.

“Ashe Ubert you _will_ appreciate me and all my glorious older sister advice I give you, or else.”

“Like the time you told me if I didn’t kiss someone by the age of 18 I’d die?”

She crossed her arms and learned forward, winking at him, “It worked didn’t it?”

“Me kissing Felix had _nothing_ to do with that! I wasn’t that naive.”

“Prove it then.” He groaned, falling into familiar play, “Prove it how?”

She grinned. “Tell me the circumstances that prove otherwise, duh!”

“You know I won’t.”

“And that, sweet Ashe, is why I can say my lies led to your kiss.”

They both know he was unable to destroy the privacy of that precious moment, so he hung his head in submission. She’d tried getting the story out of him for years, but it was something he held close to his heart, a scene only Felix and him had witnessed and had felt.

“Awww Ashe you look so cute when you’re thinking about Felix,” She reached out and pinched at his cheek, “You know he’s single again? I heard from a special faun that he broke up with Dorothea about a week ago.”

Pulling away from her hand and the display case, his eyes met pink ones that glowed with amusement, “He what?”

Pleased she caught his attention, she leaned forward, keeping eye contact as she spoke to her seemingly captivated audience. 

“Apparently he realized he was gay, not bi. Dorothea was telling her friends he seemed into someone else but wouldn’t let her help or give any names.”

Ashe’s eyebrows buried down, the corners of his mouth following. “You heard her telling her friends? Were you snooping at Holst’s bar again?”

She broke eye contact finally, lifting her nose into the air and closing her eyes.

“So what if I was? Holst’s bar, my rules.” She popped one eye open to look at him, “So give me something interesting in return. Some juicy info.”

Glancing around the room, Ashe considered the last few days. There was the stranger snooping around, his maybe a date with Felix, his apparent magical ability, and the man in Mercedes’ closet. Besides Felix, none of these felt like the kind of gossip Hilda would enjoy. However… glancing down at the pick up list, he got an idea. 

“There’s some new names on Byleth’s pick up list that I haven’t seen before, you know.”

Immediately, Hilda reached over to snatch the list up, looking it over for herself before scrunching up her nose.

“How do you read this? It looks like they wrote it half asleep in the dark.”

Entirely possible, but Ashe didn’t mention that to her though. 

“Look at the third name down, that’s a new one. Fifth and seventh too.”

She squinted at them and tilted her head. “Goni? What kind of name is that? Definitely someone new. Think they might just be college kids?”

“I don’t know, the new semester doesn’t start for a while though.” 

Hilda gobbled up the mystery easily enough, “I’ll try to pry some info from Claude tonight. He hangs around Holst’s bar more than I do anyway.”

Watching her pull out her phone, probably to text Claude, Ashe pulled out his own to open Twitter. Browsing as her fingers typed away, he was surprised when the first tweet to load up was from Felix with a picture of the gym almost empty. He captioned it with a comment that the gym should always be like this. Ashe liked the post then scrolled on, seeing pictures of Mercedes and Dedue’s winter gardens and some very late night posts from Annette and Linhardt as they had a twitter debate about magic. Hilda eventually stopped typing as much, and seemed to join him on Twitter, liking his tweet about hanging out with the Golden Deer that night. 

Using Twitter at work made the end of his shift come quick, and as they put on their coats for the winter night Hilda was happy to start talking his ear off about Marianne’s newest visitor at the shelter, a box turtle named Strawberry. Ashe listened to her talk as they climbed into her pick up, but couldn’t help as his eyes trailed off to watch the bookshop as they passed it.

Then his eyes caught on something infinitely more interesting. 

A purple head of hair, the rest of them bundled up for the winter, walked towards the entrance. The walk was too confident and the hair had an odd glamour to it, too much so to be Bernadetta. Ashe’s head found itself turning as he continued to stare at the figure, wondering who would be going to the shop after closing, and why they strike a familiar chord in his gut. The feeling was quickly interrupted by a new one as something hit his arm.

Looking back, he found Hilda reaching one hand out to smack his arm with an empty bottle of overpriced tea, even as her eyes stayed on the road. Taking the bottle from her to stop it all, he looked at her.

“Yes Hilda?”

“What were you looking at? You were absolutely ignoring me.”

He scrunched his nose, trying to compile everything he just saw before replying, “I saw someone entering the bookshop. I thought they looked familiar, is all. It’s fine though. So does Strawberry have any potential adopters yet?”

Rolling her eyes, she lifted a hand up to gesture at him in annoyance, “So you weren’t paying attention!”

As she moved back into her story about the turtle, Ashe did his best to pay attention. He’s sure if it was as interesting as Hilda claimed, Marianne would mention it tonight as well. It didn’t take long until they were pulling up to Lorenz and Ignatz’s house, with Hilda managing to get the last spot in the driveway.

The two jumped out, bringing the food with them as Hilda opened the door to let them walk in. After shutting the door she yelled out, “Are we ready to party yet?” Which was returned with a whoop from Raphael, and Lysithea telling her to pipe down, the responses confirming that both were in the dining area. Joining them, Ashe quickly put away the wine and sat the food down on the table, unloading his hands before greeting Lysithea and Raphael each. 

Once released from Raphael’s strong hug, Ashe moved to Ignatz to properly greet one of the party's hosts. Ignatz was busying himself with the food, laying out a platter of pigs in a blanket labelled “Werewolf Brand”.

“Hey Ignatz. Thanks for letting me come, how are you?”

Standing up proper and turning to Ashe, the green haired human adjusted his glasses, “Hey Ashe! It's good having you. I’m doing alright, actually, uhm, I finished a new painting last week if you’d… like to see it?”

“I’d love to!” 

Leading Ashe into the hall, he stopped in front of a large canvas, a bit embarrassed as he posed next to it. 

“Lorenz insisted on displaying it, it wasn’t my idea.” With that, he gave Ashe a chance to look it over. His eyes followed the oils around the canvas, following fast strokes that breathed life into a dark damp forest, eyes hardly having time to stop to admire the variety of plants scattered on the forest floor before the center drew him in, the light warping around a lone stag, as bright as the moon that appears between its antlers in the sky above. It stares just off center, it’s one visable eye dark and knowing as it looks to it's viewer. Ashe meets the stags eye for a moment before looking away, back to the moon, trying to drive away the odd unease he feels. The painting feels as if it knows something he doesn't, and he looks to Ignatz in awe.

“It’s amazing Ignatz, what gave you the inspiration?”

“Well, I’ve been having dreams again lately, and every time it seems he’s there. It’s the same scene, so I’d just… get up and paint it piece by piece. Lorenz is saying it’s a fae dream, since every time I wake up I smell more like fae than normal.” 

Ashe looked back to the piece, refusing to meet the stag’s eyes again. “I don’t know that I’d enjoy having him in my dreams.”

Chuckling, Ignatz motions for them to walk back to the dining area, “Maybe for some. He seems to be trying to warn me, so it’s… both comforting and unnerving, I think. To have someone warn you, but not know why.”

“Warn you? About what?” As they entered the dining room, they seemed to catch Lysithea’s attention. She came over and put her hands on her hips. 

“Are you guys talking about your new painting? You know, whatever it might be, I think I know where that painting is.”

Ignatz seemed surprised, pausing in his attempt to give her a short wave, “You know where?”

She nodded, glancing over at Lorenz, “He showed me the painting earlier. It’s this place near the Blaiddyd’s manor. It has flora you don’t find congregating in many places.”

“Do you think the warning has to do with Dimitri then?” Ashe asked, concerned at the sudden involvement of a friend.

This time, Leonie seemed to catch interest and joined in, “Even if it's got something to do with him, he’ll be fine. If Ignatz got the dream that probably means we’re the ones who need to worry, right?” 

The fae-blooded human shook his head, “Well, not exactly. But I don’t think we should spread this around yet either until we know more. Otherwise-”

Lorenz took his chance, wrapping his arm around his partner and pulling the conversation away before it spiralled, “I see everyone has arrived. Claude has unpacked the games, if we want to get on with the voting.”

Demand to get their favorite games voted for got the better of them, halting the conversation to go argue for which game to start the night. Claude’s voice rang out above them all as he took control over the party. 

After an hour of intense debate and voting, and voting again, a decision for Ticket to Ride was finally reached. Now, having pulled names from a hat to see who’d play first, everyone was seated. Five of them were at a table, playing the game, while the remaining sat with snacks and a few alternative games to pick from.

Leonie, one of the people on the couch, held out a snack to Hilda, “C’mon, eat one.”

She pushed the werewolves hand away, “Absolutely not! I grew up with werewolves, I know how werewolf food tastes. It’s practically raw and bland!”

Raphael stole the pig in a blanket from Leonie’s fingertips and ate it, “It tastes fine to me Hilda.”

“That’s because your grandfather was a werewolf! Ugh. Ashe, back me up?” 

Ashe looked away from the other game, where Claude had just put himself on the fast track to a win, to absolutely not back Hilda up. “Actually Hilda, I never knew you grew up with werewolves. Holst is a nymph isn’t he?”

Rolling her eyes, she huffed at him, “Technically, yes he is. But he had a best friend who was a werewolf and he’d hang around _all_ the time. He practically was another brother! Stopped showing up though right before I went to college though, and I haven’t heard about him since. He made me eat plenty of his food, so I know how it tastes, Leonie.”

Snorting at her, Leonie took another off her plate to eat, “Yeah, yeah. You need the extra oils in your food, I get it.” 

After that, the conversation focused on starting their own game while they waited for the others. As game night wore on, drinking came out and everything got livelier than one expected for a vampires house. A joke Leonie made sure to belt out to Lorenz, keeping the quota of bad vampire jokes above a healthy 2 per party. 

By the time 3am rolled around, Ashe managed to convince Hilda that party master Claude von Reigan did not need her more than he needed to go to bed.

“Okay everyone, I guess Ashe is still responsible, so I gotta drive him back. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” 

As they threw their coats on, Marianne brought over two covered plates for them, “Here’s some food to take home… you know Lorenz doesn’t like too many leftovers.”

Letting out a sigh, Hilda took one plate before wrapping the woman in a one armed hug.

“Of course. I wanted to ask Marianne. Are you going to Dimitri’s on the full moon?”

Startled by the sudden question, she froze in the hug before giving a friendly squeeze in return. 

“Yes, Raphael’s going to drive me over… since he’s part werewolf, he’ll be my plus one.”

Happy with her answer, Hilda gave an extra squeeze before letting go. “Okay! Call me if you need anything though, okay? Raphie should know what to do if anything happens… but I worry!”

Ashe freed Marianne's other hand by taking the plate and gave her a hug as well, “I’m sure Hilda would be more help than I would, but I give you my support as well.”

“Thank you Ashe. It’s still difficult, but it’s getting easier. Everyone’s support helps.” She got flustered from the attention, but still gave a grateful smile, “Get home safe, okay you two?”

They both promised they would, leaving them to finish securing their coats as Marianne rejoined the ongoing party. Bracing the cold they hurried to Hilda’s pick-up, crawling into it and turning up the heat to hide from the cold. As he got comfortable in his seat, Ashe sighed and rubbed sleep from his eyes.

“I’d hate to sleep at work tomorrow, so thanks Hilda.”

She tsked at him softly, “That’s what big sisters have to do sometimes I suppose. At least I had to beat Claude in Mafia for once.”

Ashe could feel sleep overtaking him as he nodded, “You’re getting better at beating him.” 

Hilda scoffed as she started playing soft music from the radio, “No one can beat Claude all the time though.” 

With that, the night flew by in a swirl of dreams.


End file.
